Nancy Garrido Misses "Family," Lawyer Says

September 2, 2009 / 8:00 AM
/ CBS/AP

The attorney for Nancy Garrido, accused along with her husband of the kidnap and rape of Jaycee Lee Dugard, said she felt that "they'd become a family."

During the 18 years since her abduction at age 11, Dugard gave birth to two daughters by Phillip Garrido and lived with them in a backyard tent complex behind the Garrido's California home. The girls had reportedly been told that Dugard was their sister.

Gilbert Maines, Nancy Garrido's court-appointed attorney, said she missed the girls and "was distraught, frightened, [and] appeared to be a little lost.

"I would describe her like a ship without a rudder," he told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith.

Ironically, Nancy Garrido once worked at a children's center as part of a child abuse prevention program, reports CBS News correspondent Hattie Kauffman.

She met and married Phillip Garrido while he was in prison, according to Maines. Phillip Garrido was sentenced in 1977 to 50 years in jail for the kidnap of another woman, though he was .

In 1993, Nancy Garrido may have been alone with Dugard for five months while her husband returned to jail for a parole violation

Maines said he's had limited time to talk with Garrido - just an hour and a half in the five days since taking the case - but indicated he may argue that she was just a victim in the ordeal as well.

Maines also said it would likely take "professional help" for him to get Garrido to open up to him so he could formulate a defense strategy.

Karan Walker, a neighbor of the Garrisons, described her encounters with Nancy Garrido to be disturbing, saying she displayed "erratic movements from suspected drug use [along with] poor hygiene," reports Kauffman.

Meanwhile, court documents show Phillip Garrido had blamed drugs for his "downfall" in a plea to reduce his previous kidnap sentence in the 1970s.

Weeks after the sentencing, he wrote a judge asking to have his sentence reduced.

Garrido said in the letter he was "ashamed" and had changed his ways. He also said he finished high school behind bars and was prepared to take college classes at Leavenworth Prison in Kansas.

The letter was among court documents in Garrido's case made public Monday.